Co-founder and former guitarist of Marilyn Manson, Scott Putesky, who went by the stage name Daisy Berkowitz, is reportedly two months into a six-month chemotherapy treatment for stage-four colon cancer, according to WLRN.org

Following nearly six months of mysterious abdomen pains, some severe enough Putesky checked himself into the emergency room, a colonoscopy performed on 14th August revealed the 45-year-old Miami goth scene pioneer had cancer and was prescribed six months of chemotherapy.

Putesky remains optimistic and has taken to growing a moustache as an act of defiance, saying, “It represents my personal crusade. Cancer: Take my hair. Take my moustache. I challenge you. I still have my hair and moustache. So I’m winning.”

A 12-band benefit concert featuring Putesky’s friends in the music world has been organised for Saturday, 16th November, to take place at Churchill’s Pub in Miami, Florida, where Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids, as they were then known, played their first show.

Putesky left Marilyn Manson after a falling-out with the eponymous lead singer, shortly before the release of the band’s 1996 breakthrough album, Antichrist Superstar.